HAVE you built your ship of death, oh have
you?
Oh build your
ship of death, for you will need it.
Now in the twilight, sit by the invisible
sea
Of peace, and
build your little ship
Of death, that will carry the soul
On its last journey, on and on,
so still
So
beautiful, over the last of seas.
When the day comes, that will come.
Oh think of it in the twilight
peacefully!
The last
day, and the setting forth
On the longest journey, over the hidden
sea
To the last
wonder of oblivion.
Oblivion, the last wonder!
When we have trusted ourselves
entirely
To the
unknown, and are taken up
Out of our little ships of death
Into pure oblivion.
Oh build your ship of death, be
building it now
With
dim, calm thoughts and quiet hands
Putting its timbers together in the
dusk,
Rigging its
mast with the silent, invisible sail
That will spread in death to the
breeze
Of the
kindness of the cosmos, that will waft
The little ship with its soul to the
wonder-goal.
Ah, if
you want to live in peace on the face of the earth
Then build your ship of death,
in readiness
For the
longest journey, over the last of seas.
Lawrence’s
Typescript.